A new report claims that the U. S. Agency for International Development ( USAID ) instructed employees to” shred” and “burn” classified documents amid the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the size of the agency and eliminate most USAID programs.
In an internet obtained by NBC News, USAID Acting Executive Secretary Erica Carr thanked the company’s employees for their “assistance in clearing our labeled vaults and officers files”, which was scheduled to begin on Tuesday. Carr officially told USAID people,” Shred as many files first, and reserve the burn sacks for when the machine becomes unavailable or needs a break”.
A photo of the USAID message was shared by Mike Benz, chairman of the Foundation for Freedom Online on X, originally Online.
In a speech on social media, Benz described the death of USAID records as a “five-alarm fireplace” and warned,” THIS MUST BE STOPPED”!
According to NBC News, an incident action to prevent the cutting of USAID’s documents was filed by constitutional groups that have opposed the Trump government’s attempt to shut down the company. The movement said,” Accused are, as this movement is being filed, destroying files with potential relevance to this dispute”.
” Although Plaintiffs do not know at this moment which records are being destroyed, the death of records does seriously undermine the company’s ability to function”, the action added. ” For example, destruction of records that contain information about the agency’s operations may make it extraordinarily difficult—if not impossible—to recreate and rebuild agency programming”.
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According to NBC News, a Trump administration official claimed that three dozen USAID employees were sent the controversial email regarding the destruction of USAID documents.
The Trump administration official stated,” No documents relevant to litigation are classified—therefore, they are not part of this directive. They are clearing out their building because it’ll be used by Customs and Border Patrol”.
” These are very old documents. They are in complete compliance with the Federal Records Act of 1950″, the official added. ” Everyone involved in this process had a secret clearance or higher and was approved by the bureau of the documents that they were handling. A majority of the content is courtesy content. Most original copies are still in classified computer systems”.
In a joint status report filed after the emergency motion on Tuesday, the American Foreign Service Association and the Trump administration confirmed that the federal government would” not destroy additional documents stored in the USAID offices in the Ronald Reagan Building without affording notice to Plaintiffs and an opportunity to raise the issue with the Court”.
The joint status report explained that the Trump administration did not destroy “personnel records” during Tuesday’s purge of USAID documents and announced that the Trump administration would confirm” which documents were and were not destroyed” by Wednesday.
